08 November 2018

Journey to Thailand 2020 begins

Kuala Lumpur: The journey to the AFC U23 Championship Thailand 2020 Qualifiers has begun following the official draw ceremony at the AFC House on Wednesday.

The Draw divided the 44 participating teams into two zones of WEST (West + South + Central) with 24 teams, and EAST (East + ASEAN) with 20 teams

Group J host Malaysia, who reached the quarter-finals of the competition for the first time in their history in January, are set to host China PR, Laos and Philippines.

The 11 group winners and four best second-placed teams will qualify for the Finals, with the host nation of the Finals receiving automatic qualification.

In the event that the host of the Finals, Thailand, finish among the qualified teams to the Finals (either top of the group or one of the four best second-placed teams), the next (fifth) second-placed team in the ranking among all groups will qualify to the Finals instead.